Yes, I am supposed to be training (and blogging)

Howdy y'all! Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday - my apologies for the blogging hiatus. Thank you for the emails asking for updates - all is well here!

The past few days have been a whirlwind of visits, car rides and lots and lots of cookies. Tonight I opted out of a family dinner to get some alone time at home - do laundry, clean the apartment, pay bills - all that fun stuff.

That careful balance of social life and training that I strive to maintain tipped entirely in favor of social events and I'd like to say I'm upset for missing workouts, but the energy I didn't expend working out was put to good use meeting new people and exploring new places.

On Tuesday night my very good friend Annie Rogers and her boyfriend, Jamie, came into town all the way from South Dakota. We headed out for a multiple-hour snowshoe hike and then went into town for dinner. Hilarity ensued.

At the last minute, Sam and I changed our plans and headed up to New Hampshire together to visit his family just outside Exeter. We arrived late and unfortunately Luna was not interested in letting us sleep in. We spent the day (Christmas Eve) bopping around Portsmouth - one of the cutest towns I've visited. It's like a mini, friendlier Boston. We drank coffee, window shopped and grabbed some last minute gifts before Christmas eve Mass - yes, I may be a Jew, but there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to sing!

That afternoon, I dragged the boy out for an hour run. He is seriously mister fitness - the boy hasn't worked out (he's in the off season) and has not run in who knows how long, but he def. put the hurt on me!

After mass (and an incident where a parishioner queried as to why I was not kneeling - "I'm Jewish") we made our way to the first of several holiday parties. It was a lot of fun getting to see Sam's hometown, the house he grew up in and hear stories of childhood debauchery straight from his best buds.

Christmas morning I found that Santa loves the chosen people too, as he brought fun presents and a stocking full of goodies - and no coal, thank you very much. After presents I took the dog for a short run around town and we piled in the car: Jersey bound.

Amazingly, Sam's family lives in the town where my Mom and Dad grew up - just wild. We recently moved my Grandma out of her house and into an apartment here in CT and it brought back a lot of memories being in her neighborhood. Christmas dinner, playtime with baby Liam and a yankee swap (where I scored a sweet Patagonia hat and calendar) made for great memories of a first Christmas experience.

The following day we hung with the fam and took Luna for a walk on a fantastic bike path that meanders along the Saddle River. It was packed with people and just beautiful. On our way home, we got an invite to another party, so we made a detour and met a crowd of ballet dancers for dinner. It was a great event and since there were vegans there, we weren't so out of place being vegetarian.

Saturday brought more fun with Annie and Jamie as it was their last night in town. Annie is my family and no matter how much time goes by between conversations or visits, we pick up right where we left off. We found a few other girlfriends that were in town, so we all met up for dinner. Poor Sam and Jamie were stuck in a country-girls version of Sex and the City.

While I'd love to be hammering my training right now, I think my happiness has a lot to do with how I train and if I like my training. I race happy, I train happy. Had I forced myself to get in the workouts, I would have sacrificed time with the people I really care about and that would have made for some serious resentment against my workouts.

Coach E has been amazingly understanding, though the whip will be cracked after the New Year, I can finally say I'm ready to train. I needed to top off the social tank (it's almost full and I'm sure I'll be fully ready after the New Year's party). Hopefully it can keep me running all year long.